The Senate Select Committee on Unconventional Gas Mining Interim report May 2016 Commonwealth of Australia 2016 ISBN 978-1-76010-403-0 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial- NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ Printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra. ii Members of the Committee Members Senator Glenn Lazarus Chair QLD GLT Senator the Hon Joseph Ludwig, Deputy Chair QLD ALP Senator the Hon David Johnston WA LP from 23 February 2016 Senator the Hon Matthew Canavan QLD LP to 23 February 2016 Senator Joanna Lindgren QLD LP Senator Anne McEwen SA ALP Senator Larissa Waters QLD AG Participating members Senator Lee Rhiannon NSW AG Senator Nova Peris NT ALP SECRETARIAT Ms Toni Matulick, Secretary Dr Jon Bell, Principal Research Officer Ms Aleshia Westgate, Senior Research Officer Ms Annemieke Jongsma, Senior Research Officer Ms Ashlee Hill, Research Officer Mr Michael Perks, Administrative Officer Mr Antonios Vlachos, Administrative Officer PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 T: +61 2 6277 3544 E: [email protected] W: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Gasmining iii iv Table of Contents Members of the Committee .............................................................................. iii Chapter 1.............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Conduct of the inquiry ............................................................................................ 1 Previous inquiries ................................................................................................... 2 Structure of the report ............................................................................................. 2 Chapter 2.............................................................................................................. 5 Background to unconventional gas mining ............................................................ 5 Status of unconventional gas mining in Australia .................................................. 5 Unconventional gas mining .................................................................................... 6 Location and operation of unconventional gas mining in Australia .................... 11 The unconventional gas mining industry as a job provider.................................. 17 Chapter 3............................................................................................................ 21 Property, mineral and petroleum rights in Australia ......................................... 21 Property, mineral and petroleum rights ................................................................ 21 Land access issues ................................................................................................ 22 Land access negotiation ........................................................................................ 26 Legislative and regulatory framework ................................................................. 29 Chapter 4............................................................................................................ 43 The health, social, business, agricultural, environmental landholder and economic impacts of unconventional gas mining ................................................. 43 The rights of landholders ...................................................................................... 45 Health.................................................................................................................... 49 v Impact on agriculture ............................................................................................ 56 Water resources .................................................................................................... 64 Social impact ........................................................................................................ 68 Chair's Additional Comments and Recommendations ................................. 71 Community concerns ............................................................................................ 71 Impact of unconventional gas mining on the environment .................................. 72 Regulation of the unconventional gas mining industry ........................................ 73 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 74 Additional comments by Opposition Senators ............................................... 79 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 79 Health.................................................................................................................... 79 Environment ......................................................................................................... 79 Land access ........................................................................................................... 80 GasFields Commission Queensland ..................................................................... 80 Opportunities for Northern Australia ................................................................... 81 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 81 Additional comments by Senator Nova Peris OAM ........................................ 1 Senator for the Northern Territory ........................................................................ 1 Additional comments by Government Senators ............................................ 85 Australian Greens' Additional Comments ..................................................... 87 A potted parliamentary history of unconventional gas ........................................ 87 Community sentiment .......................................................................................... 88 Looking forward ................................................................................................... 88 Fixing the system – banning mining donations .................................................... 90 Appendix 1 ......................................................................................................... 93 Submissions ............................................................................................................. 93 vi Additional Information .......................................................................................... 99 Appendix 2 ....................................................................................................... 103 Public hearings and witnesses ............................................................................. 103 vii viii Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 On 12 November 2015, the Senate resolved to establish the Select Committee on Unconventional Gas Mining to inquire into and report on or before 30 June 2016 on matters relating to the following: The adequacy of Australia's legislative, regulatory and policy framework for unconventional gas mining including coal seam gas (CSG) and shale gas mining, with reference to: (a) a national approach to the conduct of unconventional gas mining in Australia; (b) the health, social, business, agricultural, environmental, landholder and economic impacts of unconventional gas mining; (c) government and non-government services and assistance for those affected; (d) compensation and insurance arrangements; (e) compliance and penalty arrangements; (f) harmonisation of federal and state/territory government legislation, regulations and policies; (g) legislative and regulatory frameworks for unconventional gas mining in comparable overseas jurisdictions; (h) the unconventional gas industry in Australia as an energy provider; (i) the current royalty and taxation arrangements associated with unconventional gas mining; and (j) any related matter.1 Conduct of the inquiry 1.2 The committee advertised the inquiry on its website, and wrote to organisations and individuals inviting submissions by 14 March 2016. The committee continued to accept submissions past the submissions closing date. 1.3 The committee has published 298 submissions, and has held three public hearings. A list of submitters to the inquiry is at Appendix 1. 1.4 The committee held public hearings in Dalby, Queensland, on 17 February 2016, in Narrabri, NSW, on 29 March 2016, and in Darwin, Northern Territory, on 12 April 2016. A list of the public hearings conducted and witnesses is at Appendix 2. 1 Journals of the Senate 126, pp 3378-3380. 2 1.5 The committee would like to thank all the organisations and individuals that have contributed to the inquiry. The committee would also like to acknowledge the work of the Parliamentary Library in assisting with background research. Previous inquiries 1.6 Unconventional gas mining, particularly coal seam gas (CSG) mining, has been examined as part of the following recent Commonwealth and state parliamentary inquiries: • Victorian Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee, which 2 reported on 8 December 2015; • Senate Environment and Communications Committee Legislation Committee inquiry into the Landholders' Right to Refuse (Gas and Coal) Bill 2015, which